When to start deworming kittens
Deworming My Foster Kittens!
Good morning, kitten ladies and gentlemen. Today is dewormer day for my little kittens
So I thought I would show you guys what exactly I do on dewormer day
Now, if you have a copy of my book Tiny But Mighty, you'll find that there's a whole section about deworming and
different GI parasites that kittens can have.
This is my GI parasite cheat sheet and it explains the name of each common parasite
What it is, how they get it
symptoms, and treatment. The important thing to know is that you don't want to just wait until you find out that they have
parasites to treat them. We can assume that most of the kittens that we get in are very likely to have the parasites
I'm talking about here. So we're going to treat them prophylactically,
which means preventatively. You'll find that in the book
I share some of the common medications that are used for treating kittens
It's of course important for me to say that you're going to be medicating kittens under supervision of a veterinarian
so talk to your vet about the medications that work best for your kittens and you
The medications that I use for deworming are Pyrantel Pamoate, and this is going to treat against common
Parasites like round worms and hook worms. Then I'm going to be using Fenbendazole
This is used to fight and prevent Giardia. Ponazurill is a prescription medication that you're going to need to get from your vet
And this one is going to be used to treat coccidia. I'm not making a specific
recommendation. You should talk to your vet about what works best for you
This is just what I use. Now, most rescue organizations start deworming at two weeks of age and repeat
after two weeks and that is what I do as well
Of course if the kitten is younger than two weeks and they have an extreme parasite load that is potentially fatal to them
I will treat them younger than two weeks
But the important thing to know is that everything you do, you are dosing by their weight
So before I can deworm my kittens
I'm going to weigh them and find out exactly the right dosing that they need
Again, get your dosing information and your medication through a veterinarian. I'm gonna tare my scale
Shining Sunbeam is first, how much do you weigh? Six hundred and six grams. Good job!
So I'm going to just write that down. Shining Sunbeam,
Six hundred and six grams. Then I'm going to turn that into pounds and I have my handy cheat sheet here. So that is about
1.32 pounds
Good job
Purple Crown Fairy is
Six hundred and fifteen grams, and that is just about 1.35.
Good job
Good job. All right next up. I have Fire Crown
Fire Crown weighs in at
Six hundred and fifteen grams. That's the same as your sister. So that's 1.35 pounds.
Good job. Little Woody
So Little Woody, oh, you're small.
She's five ninety-nine.
So that is gonna bring us to just about
1.3 pounds.
And Mountain Gem weighs
Wow, you're huge, dude
seven hundred and thirty grams
Okay, so seven hundred and thirty grams is gonna bring us to just about
1.6 pounds.
Okay
Wow, you're so huge
Now, the reason that I put them in this - this is actually just a refrigerator drawer
And I really like these because they're just tall enough that the kitten will stand on the scale without
jumping out of it
You did a good job. You did a good job
You did a good job!
Okay, so now I have their weights in grams and I have their weights in pounds and this is going to give me the information
I need to safely dose my deworming medications.
Okay, so now I have my 1 CC syringes and I am going to use these to pull up my medications.
In terms of dosing information, you should definitely talk to your veterinarian about that
Ok, so I've got my Pyrantel ready. I've always thought this stuff actually smells pretty good
It smells like a cake batter or something.
I don't know that the kittens agree with me, but we'll see how they like it
Ok, so when you're ready to give your kitten their medication
You just gently hold their head in place and then you slip this into the side of their mouth like that
Ew, yucky! That's not the favorite
It's not our favorite but it helps us stay healthy
Ok, did you guys get that? Let's do another one. I'm gonna hold his head steady
I'm gonna gently put this in the side of his mouth and there we go
Good job Mountain Gem. No worms for you. Let's do one more just to make sure you guys got it
I'm holding her head steady, I find this little gap in her teeth right there, and that's that
There's your medication. Good job, Firecrown
Ok, so now we're done with our Pyrantel
and that drug is just
Once every two weeks. Now with these two, you're usually going to use them a couple days in a row
I want you to talk to your veterinarian about what they recommend, but what my veterinarian recommends is
Three days on the Fenbendazole, which is also called Panacur
So three days on Panacur,
And then three days on Ponazuril. If the kitten has really serious Giardia
Then we'll do a little bit longer on the Panacur. But again talk to a vet
'Cause the vet knows best. Now, we're gonna pull up our Ponazuril.
That one's kind of icky.
Uhg.
Yuck!
Uhg, yucky! But that's gonna help you not have coccidia, and coccidia is nasty
you don't want that. And we got our last round of our
coccidia medication, Ponazuril
Oo, it's so icky.
I know, it's gross, it's disgusting
Sometimes when they get their medication you'll see that they lash their tongues around or they shake their head. That's okay
They'll get over it quickly. You can give them a little treat. Now we have our Panacur, also known as
Fenbendazole. Now, if you feel bad for these kittens getting their medications just
Open the book and see what the alternative is if they get these parasites and they keep these parasite loads in their tummies
They are risking diarrhea, constipation,
lack of appetite
nausea
vomiting worms, blood in stool
labored breathing, watery or mucousy diarrhea, abdominal distress
dehydration, foul-smelling stool, weight loss gassiness, bloating and even fatality
So take this really seriously. You do want to deworm your kitten. You don't want to wait and find out that they're extremely symptomatic
Just go ahead and deworm your kittens on a regular schedule
Okay, I'm sorry in advance, I know this one's icky. I know this one's icky.
Oh, icky, it's gross! know. It's okay.
We got this. It's gonna be over soon
It's gonna be over soon. Oh
It's gross. It's gross, it's yucky. We don't like it.
Your got this, it's just one more and you're done. Oh, it's so gross it's so gross
You guys are it.
After this, we're all done
After this, we're all done, good job. Good job. Good job. Wow, you did a great job
You took them like a champ. How are you gonna do?
Let's see if you can do a good job too
it's so yucky. But you guys did great, and now it's all done!
And you're not gonna have no more yucky, uninvited visitors in your bellies, and that's a good thing
Good job, you guys did it. You got your dewormers. You guys will forgive me later
